Friedman Brain Institute

The hallucinogen ketamine relieved symptoms of hard-to-treat depression within a day of treatment, in the largest study yet of the popular club drug’s use in psychiatry. In the trial of 72 people whose depression hadn’t responded to at least two antidepressants, patients taking ketamine were twice as likely to report improvement than those on a placebo. The study, by researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, assessed patients after one day and again a week later. “Ketamine continues to show significant promise as a new treatment option,” said James W. Murrough, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai and one of the researchers involved in the study. Even so, “we have a long way to go before I think we can recommend it as treatment.”
-Dr. James Murrough, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiLearn more